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A National Theatre for Wales: Concept paper
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ACW is developing an English Language National Theatre company that will present the cream of talent from the theatre in Wales and beyond, brought together to create productions of real value. Its approach will be dynamic and its style eclectic. The challenge will be to utilise and distil the broadest possible range of the very best of theatre practice world wide to create a contemporary, distinctive style that reflects the flair and ambition of the nation.
We are aiming high. We want theatre in Wales to win the ownership and loyalty of the people of Wales in the same way as music and rugby do currently. We want the theatre of Wales to play its part in reflecting and shaping the emerging Wales and to gain recognition on the international stage.
The new company will not be building based giving it the freedom to create productions both for theatres and for unconventional settings. It will be artistically led with its director having skills in both artistic direction and creative production. It is not envisaged that funding for the company will be used to create a large bureaucracy; the company will be light on overheads enabling it to work through collaboration to use its resources on the creation of work.
The new National Theatre will be part of a revitalised theatre infrastructure where increased investment aims to foster high quality drama and sustainability. It will work in parallel with the recently created Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, the Welsh Language National Theatre company. Important to the success of the new company will be its skill in collaborating with the existing infrastructure of theatre companies and venues in Wales and also in its ability to identify and then empathise and collaborate with the best of existing and emerging talent in all the many fields that come together to create the very best in theatre.
Within this spirit of collaboration, the new company and the already established infrastructure will be charged with creating a new theatre ecology for Wales that:
- Makes theatre an important, meaningful and life enriching experience for a wider range of people in Wales
- Builds a sense of cumulative theatre history by exploring and presenting the best of the plays already created in Wales and by creating new plays so that, over time, a canon is fostered
- Articulates and strengthens cultural identity
Within this shared agenda, the National Theatre will have particular responsibility for
- Facilitating a spirit of collaboration and coordination
- Drawing upon different styles and practices all reflecting approaches that can be seen as facets of Welsh Theatre
- Introducing more and varied directorial voices
- Offering radical and imaginative theatre choices both in selection of plays and in production styles
- Raising the international profile of the best work being created in Wales
- Driving up quality and excellence
- Focussing on the identification and nurturing of talent
- Creating or brokering relationships between playwrights, directors, companies and theatres
- Reflecting and commenting upon the cultural diversity, past and present, of society in Wales
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Arts Counccil of Wals
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Wednesday, October 17, 2007 |
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